Project: Renewal of Rákos Creek and its banks between Szugló Street and Mogyoródi Road
Site IDs: 15196, 58978, 67381
Keywords: Prehistory, Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, Vatya culture, settlement, village
On behalf of the Budapest History Museum, archaeological monitoring was carried out at 2 Bartl János Street, District XIV, Budapest, between 15 August and 30 October 2020. The works were related to the building of the Paskal Garden residential complex and formed part of the renewal project of Rákos Creek and its banks between Szugló Street and Mogyoródi Road. The planned promenade along the northern bank of the stream included an artificial lake. During the excavation of the lake basin, archaeological features—partly disturbed by 19th-century ditches and modern interventions—were documented over an area of 207 m².
The site had previously been investigated in a test excavation in 2018 (Szilas 2022) and a full-scale excavation in 2019 (Saláta et al. 2023; Tóth–Szilas in press). The current monitoring works revealed eleven features (ditches, pits) associated with Middle (ca. 1700–1450 BC) and Late Bronze Age (ca. 1350–1100 BC) inhabitations. These were dated based on a small number of finds and their stratigraphic positions. The features likely represent the southern periphery of a Vatya culture settlement bordered by the floodplain of Rákos Creek. They appeared under a recent fill and a ca. 80 cm thick humus layer in the yellow, clayey subsoil at 109.5 above Baltic Sea level. The excavation of these features was carried out within the frame of archaeological monitoring.
No additional archaeological features have been identified during further earthworks in the area (including the digging of watermeter pits, the construction of gabion walls, and the modification of the creekbed).
Contributors: Farkas Márton Tóth (lead archaeologist), Péter Dudás (archaeological field technician), Levente Virágh (archaeological field technician), István Fábián (surveyor), Tibor Kovács (surveyor)
Farkas Márton Tóth
References:
Saláta et al. 2023 • Saláta, Dénes – Gyulai, Ferenc – Tóth, Farkas Márton – Szilas, Gábor – Pető, Ákos: Régészeti növénytani adatok a Rákos-patak völgye bronzkori környezetrekonstrukciójához Budapest–Bartl J. u. 2. régészeti lelőhely adatai alapján (Archaeobotanical data on the Bronze Age paleoenvironment of the Rákos-creek valley based on the survey of Budapest–Bartl János street 2. archaeological site.) Archeometriai Műhely 20(1) 2023, pp. 77–92.
Szilas 2022 • Szilas, Gábor: Budapest, XIV. ker., Rákospatak utca–Miskolci utca–Bartl János utca (Hrsz.: 31373/8). [Budapest, District XIV, Rákospatak Street – Miskolci Street – Bartl János Street (plot no. 31373/8)] Aquincumi Füzetek 25 (2022) pp. 241–243.
Tóth – Szilas In press • Tóth, Farkas Márton – Szilas, Gábor: Új topográfiai és környezetrégészeti eredmények egy Rákos-patak menti, bronzkori település feltárása nyomán (XIV. ker. Bartl János u. 2. (Paskal Garden lakópark II. ütem)). [New Topographic and Environmental Archaeological Results Following the Excavation of a Bronze Age Settlement along the Rákos Creek (District XIV, Bartl János Street 2 – Paskal Garden Residential Park, Phase II)] Aquincumi Füzetek 26 In press